Those with questions were directed "to contact the head elf or the head reindeer."

Yes, it was a busy day in West Town, a neighborhood of mostly modest housing, west of the Kennedy Expressway. It wasn't surprising that Santa Claus and a crew of North Polish helpers dropped into that diverse area Saturday, looking for space to do some light assembly.

West Town has long been a port of entry for industrious newcomers, first Dutch, then Germans, Slavs and Armenians, now Hispanics and African-Americans. In these not-easy times, it is home base for many "poor and low-income working families who have deep roots in this community."

That description comes from Erie Neighborhood House, 1347 W. Erie St., a place that, for 127 years, has helped "working poor" neighbors with everything from literacy to yuppies, whose recent influx has sparked renovation in the area but also driven up property taxes and rents.

The Erie's mission is "to assist community residents to become self-reliant, healthy and successful," noted staffer Rick Estrada, leading a visitor on a tour of facilities that have been set up to encourage teens, educate adults and provide access to technology.

But along with such useful skills, the Erie has another offering for its clients these days, one substantially more elusive. It is a gift of hope, of pride--of becoming able, as the agency puts it, "to celebrate the holidays in a joyful and dignified manner." With gifts.

"It's really nice," said Lenora Hed from Morton Grove Community Church as she worked scissors at a cluttered wrapping table with her friend, Jean Swenson. Nearby, Lois Quinn and her husband, Don, said they have been coming in from the northwest suburbs to help out with Erie programs for years, getting to know "a lot of people in the neighborhood."

Together, they were putting ribbons around a box containing fanciful Christmas pajamas.

"What we do every year is provide presents to all the children in our programs--and to their parents," noted one Erie staffer, Antoinette Korotko-Hatch, running through a list of Erie activities, including conflict resolution, field trips, weekend retreats, mentoring, self-defense classes, relationship seminars and cultural events.

Though this year's larder included such trendy offerings as Shark Attack: A Motorized Chase Game, not all requests are for cutting-edge toys, Korotko-Hatch noted. Some children ask for new pants for a school uniform. Parents get gift certificates for food. "We had senior citizens asking for $10 to buy a ham. They say they haven't had ham for such a long time," she noted.

That leads to "Santa's Gym," its floor covered with protective sheeting, the site of the annual wrap-day party, a time for hot chocolate, Christmas carols over the intercom, a cookie-heavy buffet lunch--and considerable holiday schmoozing.

Later, the presents are given to parents who take them home and "celebrate any way the family wants to," Korotko-Hatch said. Nor is there any shortage of traditions in a neighborhood that has welcomed newcomers ever since Holland Presbyterian Church, the predecessor to the Erie Neighborhood House, was set up in 1870 to serve newly arrived Dutch immigrants.

One of the traditions is to pitch, according to a large bearded gentleman who, hanging around outside the gym, described himself as "the Bill Gates of the operation."